Heeyy Everybody!!

It is February 2nd and I have a snow day!!! It is like Winter-wonderland outside. It is really pretty and we have a lot of snow. I’m also over the half of my exchange year and I did a lot of fun stuff the last weeks!! I have now some time to update my blog. Enjoy reading!! 🙂

Let’s start Friday January 16^th. I was done with all my finals and I didn’t have school. My hdad got called that his company had Hockey Jerseys. My hdad has a company named ‘Bosman Disposal’, this is a garbage company. They found a couple of Jerseys from the Blackhawks and the Bears. Those jerseys are normally really expensive. So I’m happy I could get one 🙂

On Saturday I went with Seraina (from Switzerland) to Chicago. We met up with Britt here. She is also with AFS from the Netherlands to the US. She lives near Kansas City, but she was a weekend in Chicago. We met up at the bean and made right at that place some pictures. After that we went to Subway to eat something. We just sat there and talked when a random dude walked into the window right in front of us. We were in shock and the dude ran away. After that we started laughing. We thought it could maybe be like an TV show where they’re filming people’s reactions. Like the Belgium TV show Benidorm Bastards but then with younger people who do it. It looked really like that haha.
We just walked around in Chicago after our subway adventure. We walked to the Chicago river, a mall and got some free Chocolate at Chiradelli (they give chocolate when you walk into the store). After that Seraina and I had to go to the train. We brought Britt to the place her hfamily was and said goodbye. Seraina and I went to the train. It was amazing to see Britt again, it was around a year ago that we met in the Netherlands during preparations for our exchange year. And now we saw each other here in the USA! I will see her again in a half year when our exchange year is unfortunately over.. 🙁

At the train station Seraina and I split up. I went to Alexia (from Brazil) that night, Ana and her hsister Carlee were here too. It was really fun! We ate pizza, played Just Dance and watched 2 movies. Ferris Bueller’s day off, which is filmed in Chicago and Mean girls. I think the first movie was fun because I recognized parts in Chicago. I like it when I can say like: ‘I know where that is!!’ or ‘I’ve been there!’. I can do that also with Divergent. 🙂
The next day I went again to Chicago. But now with Alexia. The weather was really good this day and I made awesome skyline pictures. We went to the Shed Aquarium where we met up with Bruno (also from Brazil), they had free entrance that day. Other people knew that probably too.. So after 2,5 hours and a hotdog we were finally inside. There we found out that the free tickets where only for a small area in the Aquarium. We looked around there and after that we bought tickets to a 4D movie (Ice Age). After this we left the aquarium and made some more (skyline) pictures, it was getting darker so it was really pretty with all the lights. When we got to the station again we said goodbye and I went home.

Monday January 19^th was Martin Luther King Day. So another day off. I slept in pretty long when Hannah came knocking on my door to tell me that some skating friends would come over in +-30 minutes. So I got out of bed to be ready in 30 minutes. Brandon, Ethan and Colleen came over, we made cake balls and we went snowboarding in front of our house. There wasn’t a lot of snow, but it was exactly enough to glide. After that we went to Portillo’s to eat something. I really think we need Portillo’s in the Netherlands. I will miss it when I’m back home… When we came back Hannah, Ethan, Colleen and I went rollerblading (in the snow…. -> it wasn’t my idea!!). It was something new for me, I don’t think it was really good for the wheels.. But it was fun to do! When we came home Brandon and Jan-Erik where waiting with a lot of snowballs ready. After a short snowball fight we went inside. I tried all my hockey supplies on because I had a game that night (Yes, I joined a hockey). We watched the movie White Chicks after I was sure I had all the stuff I needed. In the evening I had my first hockey game. I’m number 14, just like my shorttrack number on the KNSB-cups in the Netherlands. We won this game with 6-4, I went to bed pretty late and I had to wake up early again because of school.

So.. The weekend was over and school started again. This was my first schoolday after finals and second semester started. This was exciting but also sad.. It was exciting because I have some new classes now. 3D-art and Government. With 3D-art we make stuff out of clay, glass and other stuff. We already made a Kiln guardian out of clay in the first week and now we’re making jewelry out of glass. I don’t know what kind of stuff we will make more. But it is a fun class. In Government we talk about the Government in the US (this wasn’t hard to guess I think). We watched here how Obama was speaking and we ‘learned’ how to make a paper for the class. I had to make once a paper like that before for my Dutch class back home. So I know how to do it. I think it was weird to learn this in a Government class and not in an English class. I will see what this class will bring me, I’m sure I will learn more about the Government in the US. And maybe I will even learn about the Netherlands here when I compare things. 🙂 The sad thing was that the first half of my school and exchange year is over.. Hope that I can make the best out of the rest of my year. I’m sure that will be fine! I still have a weekend Minnesota, a week Salt Lake City and a week Hawaii in the planning. And I’m sure I will do a lot more fun stuff!!
What also started on Tuesday was Track season. I have 6 times a week practice with Track. Next to that I do shorttrack practice (2 or 3 times a week), longtrack (1 time a week, I will skip a track practice for this on Wednesday) and one time a week a hockey game. So I do a lot of sports here. Some people think that I’m crazy because I joined the track team while I already did a lot. I saw it as an opportunity to meet new people. And I did! The team is really nice!! A lot of people of cross country are also in the team. But I do sprint here, so I practice with other people. I was tired this week, I think because I did a lot and had new things. It will probably get better when I get used to do this much. I hope… haha The rest of the week was pretty normal.

Hmmm… This blog starts to get long.. And I still have to write for one more week. Haha

That weekend I had the mid-year Orientation from AFS. I drove there with Éviny and Seraina. At the orientation we broke up in groups. I was in the group with Éviny (Brazil), Kaspar (Germany), David (Spain), John (China) and Anna (Italy). We had to talk about things we experienced and things we still want to do. Of course Éviny and I get distracted and do the ‘No *wink*’ from the Pitch Perfect 2 trailer. David saw this and started laughing. So then we started talking about Pitch Perfect. We had a couple of times that we started talking about something else. After the talking we went eating with all other exchange students. I love those people! They are amazing! Can’t imagine I won’t see them anymore next year…

That evening Éviny and Seraina slept over. We watched the movie Avatar. When it ended we found out we didn’t get an extra mattress.. So we had to improvise to sleep. After looking around in the house we found some thick blankets and a sleeping bag. So we made a bed out of that. I already had another bed in my room. So now we had place for everyone to sleep. I woke up the next morning earlier than Seraina and Éviny. I got my laptop to see if I could find a way to see the livestream from the European Championships shorttrack. I found this, later we watched with the three of us the finals in the relay. It was fun to see it with them! Later Éviny got picked up. Hannah and I brought Seraina home when we went to practice. We left a little late (like normal) and we had to bring Seraina home and we were still in time for practice because they were behind on the schedule. This happens almost every time when Hannah and I are late. So we were in time, like we always are. Haha

This week in school wasn’t that special. It was the first 5 day school week in 2015.  I had classes, track practice and skating practice. There was no hockey game this week. Something that was different than normal was that we had to go to the auditorium for assemblies during warrior time the whole week. This was to prepare for Senior year with choosing classes. I won’t be here next year. So I was there just because I had to. Not because I need it. You also got papers every day, the first day I said I didn’t need it. But they wanted to give me the paper so bad that I took it.. I would throw it away. The last day I just gave the paper back after we were done with  it. This week I decided to go another time to Minnesota for another skating meet with Hannah, which will be the weekend of February 7 and 8.

Saturday morning was my first Saturday track practice. After practice we went with the track team to Simons to eat breakfast all together. I think it was really nice and it is good to get to know other people better. When I came home I was tired so I did easy. My hdad came when I was about to start a new blog to tell he and my hbrothers would go to the movie ‘The imitation game’ and if I would like to come. Of course I would like to come. When we came at the movie theater the tickets were sold out. Then we were thinking about American Sniper. But those tickets were sold out too. So we went to Portillo’s to eat and after that we went to another movie theater. Here we watched The imitation game. I thought it was a really good movie!! I’ve been a lot of times to the movie theater here. I’ve been there more times in my half year in the USA than I’ve been there the last 2 or 3 years in The Netherlands. I still have a lot of movies on the list I want to see. So it could be that I will go more often to the movie theater. 🙂

Yesterday (Sunday) we had an snowstorm. It already started snowing Saturday evening and it snowed all day on Sunday. In the morning I started cleaning my room (which was really necessary) and I was planning to go to Éviny in the noon to see the Super Bowl game together. The road was really bad and there was like 1 ft/ 30 cm snow on the car. So I decided to stay home. Now I helped the family shoveling and I played a videogame with my hbrothers in the evening. I watched the super bowl game from half way. I cheered for the Seahawks, unfortunately they lost because of a stupid move. I also walked with Hannah around the house in the evening. The snow came to my knees, it was fun to walk in that. 🙂

I had a snowday today (Monday February 2^nd). I took this morning some nice pictures of the snow around my house here. After taking some pictures I went playing in the snow with Hannah. We made pictures of it. We just fell down in the snow or we jumped into it. You didn’t feel anything of it because there was a lot of snow. It was really fun!! After that I skyped with my parents to show them some pictures. In the noon Hannah left to Milwaukee for practice. I didn’t go, instead of going to Milwaukee I started writing this blog and tonight I will play my second hockey game.

Today I also ordered a map to collect quarter dollar coins from each state in. I think it would be fun to try to get them all before I left. I came to this idea when I saw that Alexia this did. So you can make me happy if you’re American (or if you have quarter dollar coins) which I don’t have yet and you want to give it to me! I also ordered a selfie stick for when I’m in Salt Lake City and Hawaii and of course other moments where I can use it and I ordered lenses that I can put on my phone like wide angle, fisheye and macro. I don’t know how they will work but I will see. 🙂

I’m really looking forward for what the coming months will bring me and I will try to update my blog when I have time. I think I will try to make soon a vlog (video blog) soon too about my normal day in the US. I still have to arrange something with school for that because I can’t film in school during a school day because of privacy of people. I hope the video will work out. I might try to make a video in my Minnesota weekend to try out if I like making videos. I also still have to find time to write my blog about differences between the USA and The Netherlands.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog! Please let me know if you want to know something about what I do here! Comments are always welcome!! 🙂

Bye from the snowy Chicago area!! Have a nice day!!

The last hours of 2014 are ticking by. I’m in the USA and I just played Settlers of Catan with Ethan and Hannah. I won the game with 3 Cities, 1 Settlement, the largest Army and a victory point. This morning we left our house at 7am to skate in Milwaukee. This is what I do on my day before New Year. In 8 hours it will be 2015 here. In 1 hour it will be 2015 back home.

My year started off with the National championship. Here  I got Dutch champion together with my relay team (with: Aafke Soet, Suzanne Schulting and Esmeralda Wannink) from Shorttrack Club Thialf. Overall I got 5^th. My brother also won the relay with his team.

On January 16^th, exactly a week after my 17^th birthday, I passed my drivers test. So I got my license. In the Netherlands you can start driving lessons when you’re 16,5. Then you can get your license when you are 17. The first year you’re only allowed to drive with your ‘coaches’. So I could drive with my parents. When I get 18 (January 9 2015) I can drive alone. But because I’m in The States this year and my exchange organization (AFS) doesn’t allow me to drive I have to wait until I’m back in The Netherlands (beginning of July).

Last year I was in my final year of the HAVO at my highschool in The Netherlands. We have different levels in the Netherlands. It is hard to explain but I will add an image which will hopefully explain the Dutch school system a little. But I graduated from the level I was on. Now I knew I passed school my parents allowed me to go on my exchange year. I’m not sure if they allowed me if I didn’t pass it. All my grades are really good. There was one which I could do better. You have the chance to do one of the exams again (if you graduated or not), I did this and I got my grade up 2 whole points overall. 🙂

In the beginning of the year I had a lot of preparations for my exchange year in the USA. Filling out all the papers, waiting for a hostfamily, thinking which things I would take and working a lot during the summer break to get more money. When I heard that I had my family in Oak Brook, Illinois I was really excited and I couldn’t wait to meet them!

During the summer I also stayed training for shorttrack a lot. I’m sad I have to miss my team there for a year. But here in the USA I have an awesome team too. I got information about the day that I left in the beginning of the summer. It got closer and closer and I had to say goodbye to family and friends. Which was sad.. I’ve had an goodbye party where a lot of people came. I was happy most of the people where able to come! 🙂

A week before I left I really started packing my stuff. I had a lot of stuff to take, my skating stuff (includes 3 pair of skates), clothes, and some gifts for the family. I already sent some stuff  by mail. But I still had a lot of stuff.
The evening before I left I went with my parents and brother to the Otterskooi. This is a restaurant in Giethoorn. I drove, this was the last evening I was able to drive. After we went to my grandparents to say goodbye. This was hard, that was the first moment I realized I would really be gone for almost a year. Tineke, Eleni and Lotte (friends of me) where at my home when we came home. It was really nice to spend the evening with them before departure. I didn’t expect this, it was a surprise. The next morning they brought me together with my parents and Sanne (another friend) to the airport.

Here my adventure really started!

After a night in a hotel and some orientations the first day where I already met a lot of other exchange students (who are awesome!) my hostmom, hostsister and younger hostbrother picked me up. It was really nice to meet them!  Later I met the others of the family. My hostfamily exists of a dad, mom, 3 sisters and 4 brothers.

I’m going to be an American here. It is fun to see that the schoolsystem is different. In school here you have sport teams and here I joined the Cross Country and the Track. I’ve met a lot of new people here and they are all really nice.

This year I had an American Halloween and I went trick or treating. I had Thanksgiving where we came together with the family. I introduced Sinterklaas to my family and I had a real American Christmas with a lot of presents and really nice lights in the streets.

I’ve also done really nice trips here. I went to Wichita, Kansas for a shorttrack meet where I got 3^rd. I went to Holland, Michigan to see at a Cross Country meet of Hannah and to see family and the city there. I went to Minneapolis for a longtrack meet outside. Here we also went to Mall of America where I meet up with an AFS returnee from last year. And I went to St. Louis for the Hot Chocolate run. Here we went also up in to the Arch.

I really liked all the things I experienced this year. It is awesome to live a year abroad and if people ask me if they should do a year abroad. DO IT!! This is a once in a lifetime experience and I love it!! If you want to see what I exactly did here in the USA you can read my other blogs. 🙂

My dad is going to bike up to the Alpe D’huzes next year. This is to get money for cancer research. He is still looking for people who can donate. I hope you can maybe help him. For more information about that click here or look at www.climb4hope.nl.

5 minutes left until new year in the Netherlands. Have a great 2015 everyone!! I’m sure this year will bring us a lot of great things. I will see you guys in July!! 😀